AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Why does it do that?” I asked, looking up at the sky from beneath my hooded robe.
“Get smaller?”
“The moon reflects the sun’s light, but part of it is always in earth’s shadow. So it waxes, and wanes.” April said, without looking up. “The planets spin, earth and the moon, like marbles.”
Tobias nodded and smiled. “To be honest, I’m not sure I could’ve given a better explanation. Science stuff was never my thing.”
“What were you into?” I asked. “Before all this?”
“What has Damien told you?” Tobias asked, peering to the side of his dark collar.
“Not much. Only… you’ve known each other a long time.”
“We were never friends, and not quite enemies. We found each other here, elite in his father’s kingdom, saddled with responsibilities that we were too young to understand. Maybe it was our guilt that drew us together, but maybe that’s true for all of Richard’s elite.”
“How so?” I asked, though I remembered Damien’s chilling story, about when he’d first turned. Had Tobias wrestled with his immortality in a similar fashion?
“Think about it; a bloodthirsty elite may get off on the power trip of abuse, taking whatever he wants. But it’s difficult to be your worst and keep friends around, so they often travel and hunt alone; and a lone elite in the wilds is just slagpaw bait.”
“So the elite who joined, probably aren’t all psychopaths? How do you explain Nigel, then?”
“Some, like Damien and I, hated our bloodlust, and how it separated us from people. We felt shame and guilt about it. But in Richard’s world, offering blood was a privilege. We allowed ourselves to live in a society where were weren’t shunned, detested, evil. Instead we were saviors and protectors. We knew it was a lie, but it was a comfortable fiction.”
“But others didn’t? Augustine said something, about taming the elite.”
“That’s part of it, maybe. Luxury and comfort are valuable, especially after years of fighting for survival. But after what happened at your trials, I’ve started to suspect Richard created the slagpaw on purpose. Genetic engineering, combined with the unexpected mutations from the ash.”
“Monsters,” April said, “to force the humans into the compounds, and the elite into the citadel.”
“Some of the elite probably just got tired of slumming it,” Tobias said. “I mean, we’re immortal but we’re not insensitive. We like a shower and a soft mattress better than anyone. But there were probably also some elite, maybe the younger ones like Damien and me, but those who appear older as well, that turned too suddenly, without notice, and… hurt people we cared about. We weren’t murderers, until we were. And we had to deal with that trauma. Moving to the citadel, locking ourselves away in a private apartment, getting a fresh supply of blood every day without violence, until we came to terms with what we were. In exchange for a small weekly donation of the magic formula in our veins… it was a way to grieve in comfort. It doesn’t mean we agree with everything, or that we like it. It’s just, easier. Convenient.”
“Then why are you doing this?” April asked suddenly. “Why fight with us?” She was a little ahead and I didn’t know she’d been listening, until she turned around to wait for us. She seemed more curious than hostile, but it still felt a little too direct. I wondered what she was getting at, or if she just didn’t trust him, like the others from havoc.
“I’m younger than Damien,” he said. “I mean I was born later. I barely remember anything from the Before. A kindergarten, maybe. A video game store. Then a few years of being quiet, locked inside at night, being hungry. I don’t remember what happened to my parents, but I was with a small group of adults for a few years. We were attacked, and they were all killed. Woke up in Gostras with a full belly and a warm bed.”
“You were in the compounds?” I asked, grabbing his arm. Somehow I couldn’t picture it.
“One of the first,” he said. “At the time, we weren’t given much to do, other than play games, color and paint. That’s how Gostras became the art center of the kingdom. It was another decade before the compounds had any kind of standard curriculum. We kept ourselves busy, telling stories and acting them out.”
“That explainssomuch,” I smiled.
“King Richard was more attentive in those days. Still working on his science, running experiments. He collected our blood samples himself, when we were just a few hundred kids locked away in a private town. He saw something promising in me, and asked me to come to the citadel. A few years later, I helped him draft the basics of what would become the choosing ceremony.”
I sucked in a breath. He was responsible for my entire life, everything I’d been raised to believe. And so long ago.
“Finally, he turned me. I wasn’t sure if he suspected my abilities, but he seemed to enjoy having a disciple of sorts. He helped me improve my compulsion, and in return I served him for many years. Damien was around in those days, but I rarely saw them together.”
“And then you met Penelope,” I prompted. His face broke into a wide smile. “You skipped a few decades in the narrative, but yes I suppose she is the next most important thing to happen to me. She was so passionate, about everything. Butgoodin a way I’d stopped trying to be. Once we knew each other well enough to be candid, she said I was helping the king abuse power. She suggested I force him to change, or try planting ideas in his head. Looking back, I can see why she joined the rebels, and why she didn’t tell me. I’d gotten apathetic. The human concerns she raised, didn’t bother me. Their lives were short, but safe. I’d bought into the rhetoric. They were happy here, they were lucky to be here. I just wanted to enjoy her as long as possible. I knew I’d have to turn her or lose her, eventually. But I was distraught at the thought of making that choice. I was so focused on savoring each day with her, I almost lost them all.”
“She was caught,” April said, following the story. She’d heard some of this from me earlier.
“And the king used her as a display, and me, his weapon.”
“He compulsed you?” April asked.
“He did, and in that moment, I realized what a terrible instrument I’d been to him, all those years. How violating the gift he groomed in me.”
“It was awful,” I breathed. “But Tobias saved her. When you kissed her goodbye, right? You gave her elixir.”
